During the first quarter of the year, 5.1% of homes sold in Portugal (2,098 properties) were purchased by buyers with tax residence abroad, according to the Housing Price Index (IPHab) by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Among these, 2.7% were buyers from the European Union (EU), while 2.4% were from other countries.
“The relative share of purchases by buyers with tax residence outside the national territory was the lowest since the second quarter of 2021,” it was noted.
Conversely, properties bought by buyers with tax residence in Portugal increased by 26.6% from the previous year, reaching 39,260 units.
INE reported “different dynamics” in transactions by buyers residing outside Portugal. While home purchases by EU tax residents grew by 12.1% year-on-year, totaling 1,109 units, those categorized under “other countries” saw 989 transactions, marking an annual decrease of 8.3% and the fifth consecutive decline.
Overall, 41,358 homes were sold in the first quarter, a year-on-year growth of 25.0% but an 8.5% decline compared to the previous quarter. The transaction value reached 9.6 billion euros, a 42.9% increase over the same period in 2024.
Regionally, the North accounted for 29.7% of all home sales with a total of 12,285 transactions, a 0.3 percentage point drop compared to the same period last year.
Following in transaction volume were Greater Lisbon with 8,018 sales, and the Central region with 6,501 units, representing 19.4% and 15.7% of the total, respectively (+0.3 and -0.6 percentage points from the same quarter in 2024).
In terms of value, the Setúbal Peninsula and Madeira recorded the highest year-on-year increases in relative shares, rising by 0.6 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, and comprising 9.9% and 2.8% of the total value.
Greater Lisbon and the Algarve, which together represented 42.4% of the total transaction value, saw their regional shares decrease by 0.7 and 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.
